Porsche is using augmented reality to fix your 911

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Even experienced dealer technicians occasionally run into a car problem they're at a loss to solve. The usual practice is to have a factory representative or regional engineer visit to help diagnose the problem, and sometimes a faulty assembly is shipped back to company HQ for damage analysis. All that costs time and money for customers and dealers alike. Hoping to shorten diagnostic times, Porsche has developed a system to help factory engineers see what dealer technicians are seeing even from thousands of miles away.

The image from the goggles isn't exactly as good as being there in person, but it should give engineers a better grasp of what's going on than an email.

Called “Live Tech Look," Porsche's system will debut next year and send live video feed to the Atlanta-based Porsche Technical Center using special glasses designed to make the engineer feel like he’s present at the car. The system is supposed to work better than back-and-forth emails and other not-so-effective ways of troubleshooting. The glasses have auto-focusing cameras that should be better than the current standard -- a grainy out-of-focus iPhone picture.

Porsche tried the system out in eight dealerships in California, Florida, Indiana, New Jersey, Washington and Canada before deciding to launch it across the country. It should make Porsche service visits quicker, but we doubt it'll make them any cheaper.